Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope apparatus and an observation method.
Description of Related Art
Previously, as a super-resolution microscope, STORM (Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy) has been known (e.g., see US Patent Publication No. 2008/0032414). With this microscope, as an observation sample, one uses fluorescent material or an object to which this fluorescent material adheres which is activated when irradiated with activating light of a prescribed wavelength, and which has the property of becoming inactive by emitting fluorescence when subsequently irradiated with exciting light of a wavelength that differs from the activating light. With respect to this type of observation sample, the fluorescent material is activated at low density by irradiation with weak activating light, and a fluorescent picture image is obtained by subsequently conducting irradiation with exciting light to cause the fluorescent material to emit light. In a fluorescent picture image obtained in this manner, fluorescent bright spots (images of fluorescent material) are arranged at low density, and are individually isolated, thereby enabling obtainment of the center-of-gravity positions of the individual images. The steps in which such fluorescent picture images are obtained are repeated, for example, multiple times—e.g., several hundred to several tens of thousands of times—enabling obtainment of sample picture images of high-resolution by conducting image processing which synthesizes the multiple fluorescent picture images that are obtained.